Gianluca Di Vera, a smart contract researcher who specializes in zero-knowledge proofs, said the dangers posed by quantum computing are not a remote concern. It’s current.
In an interview with Cointelegraph from the United Nations City Office in Copenhagen, Denmark, Di Vera said he believes “we should move to a post-quantum encryption standard now.” The reason for this is so-called “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, where data is collected and stored until future technology allows decryption, he explained.
For example, if the identity of a dissident in a totalitarian state is protected only by encryption, they want to ensure that their data will remain safe for 10, 15, 20, or more years into the future. Di Vera said quantum computing may be 10 to 15 years away, but cautioned that “big companies like Microsoft and Google may find a solution within a few years.”
Di Vera took issue with what he calls “quantum washing,” where companies make dubious claims about the properties or functionality of quantum systems. Still, he shared his concern that even if China were to develop a system capable of breaking modern codes, it would be unlikely to alert the rest of the world to its newfound capabilities.
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Post quantum zero knowledge proof
Once quantum computing reaches the required power and scale, or as some say, quantum computing reaches the required power and scale, the security assumptions of traditional cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs may be compromised. As a result, encrypted data can be decrypted and proofs generated by traditional ZK proofs can be forged, allowing valid statements to be forged or verification to be bypassed.
Several post-quantum encryption standards already exist, some of which have been approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (specifically ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA). However, an equivalent post-quantum ZK-resistant standard is not yet complete. This is an area of research that Di Bella is working on through Mood Global Services, a smart contract development company he co-founded.
Di Bella pointed to permutations on the Lagrangian basis of Oecumenical Noninteractive argument of Knowledge (PLONK) as an implementation of the post-quantum ZK proof. Still, they have not been “battle tested” and are currently considered research implementations.
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A long road ahead
Di Vera discussed how long he expects PLONK development to reach a stage suitable for real-world use, noting that it is difficult to predict an exact timeline and lamenting the lack of investment in this area. He noted that this is a niche topic and requires considerable expertise to tackle it, which tends to reduce investment and slow development.
“If you’re an R&D manager in a company, you don’t invest in something you don’t understand,” he said.
Di Bella said that ZK-resistant development is done in low-level Rust programming, which has few abstractions and high complexity. In some ways, most ZK-resistant systems are programmed in a way that recalls the complexity of early programming.
Although we are now accustomed to high-level programming languages that abstract away complexity, programming these types of systems is “definitely a lot of repetitive math,” says Di Vera.
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